American Farmland Preservation by Waters, Andrew;

Short description:

This book examines modern American farmland preservation, arguing that its policies must address the social, identity, and psychological issues facing American farmers. 

Long description:

This book examines modern American farmland preservation, arguing that its policies must address the social, identity, and psychological issues facing American farmers.

As American farmland is disappearing rapidly, this crisis not only jeopardizes American agriculture but also threatens rural communities. While the American farmland preservation movement has focused on conservation easements, permanent land restrictions that work within the American legal system’s preference for inalienable property rights, the author argues for a new era of farmland preservation based on stakeholder-led solutions. The book showcases how rapid development is escalating farmland loss in urbanizing parts of the country, meaning the problem facing much of rural America is the loss of farmers and farm communities, not farmland. Drawing on the author’s career as a farmland preservation specialist, the book evaluates America’s current farmland preservation policies framed through the “politics of place,” a term describing the role of place in local politics and civic engagement. Utilizing interviews with farmland preservationists, the book highlights a broader, more holistic approach to farmland preservation than mere land protection. By featuring these prominent examples from around the country, the book puts forward a new vision for farmland preservation that more insightfully addresses the social and economic issues facing America’s farming communities and fosters a more engaged rural citizenship.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and agriculture, rural sociology, and environmental management, as well as professionals working in farmland management, conservation, and preservation.

Table of Contents:

1. Farmland Preservation: A Wicked Problem Part One Foundations of American Farmland Preservation 2. A Tale of Two Farmlands 3. Setting the Stage for Crisis: American Farmland Preservation Policy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 4. American Farmland Preservation and the Spirit of the Law 5. American Agrarianism Part Two American Farmland Preservation Practices and Policies Today 6. American Farmland Preservation Today 7. Conservation Easements 8. Zoning, Planning, TDR, and Agricultural District Programs 9. State Policy, Greenbelts, and Open Space Bonds 10. Farmland Transition Part Three American Farmland Preservation and the Politics of Place 11. Farmland Preservation, Social Capital, and Sense of Place 12. The Politics of Place 13. New Tools for Old Paradigms 14. Bridging Organizations and Transformational Leadership 15. Narrative Networks 16. Crowdlending and Digital Farmland Preservation 17. International Farmland Preservation 18. Farmland Preservation in America: Looking Back, Looking Forward